


Like Rabbits Bolting Home

by thehiddengrace



Category: IM5 (Band)
Genre: (but that's okay), (is it really okay?), Cole's a jerk, Dana's young and optimistic and somehow starts a war, Gabe's a hermit that hates everyone, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I wrote this before David left and I miss him : (, Will would probably have an easier time if he stopped losing his phone, but then David Saves The Day!, somehow they all have superpowers?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 08:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2615123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehiddengrace/pseuds/thehiddengrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will meets Dana and Cole when Dana falls out of the sky and he brings them back home with him. Little does he know it’s going to change everything he knows about people with superpowers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Rabbits Bolting Home

**Author's Note:**

> When I started writing this, I text my best friend and told her I was losing control of my life. She asked what was wrong and I told her I was writing IM5 with superpowers; she called and laughed at me for two straight minutes. What have I become?

Will meets Dana and Cole when Dana falls out of the sky on his first solo flight.

Well, maybe “meets” isn’t exactly the right word, because Will’s invisible and he doesn’t know how to willingly become re-visible and so he doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t want them to think he’s a ghost instead of an invisible boy. He just kind of lurks around because he doesn’t remember seeing anyone fall out of the sky before, and that’s kind of interesting. He follows the sound of crying until he sees the boy laid out on the ground. 

He’s surprised to see a second boy there, leaning over the first that’s clutching at his bloody leg. 

“It’s broken, Cole, I know it, oh my god, it hurts.”

“It’s not broken,” Cole says. 

“It is broken. I can see the bone sticking out of my leg,” which draws Will’s attention to it, and yeah, that’s a bone, and Christ, he’s going to faint. 

“No, look at me,” Cole says, and when the boy looks up from his leg and meets Cole’s eyes, his face goes just a touch slack for the barest moment. “It’s not broken. Maybe sprained a little bit, but it’s definitely not broken.”

It definitely _is_ broken, but the boy just nods and stops crying. “Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right. I’m just overreacting.”

“Of course I’m right. I’m always right. Do you think you can walk on it? We’ve got to keep going.”

The boy looks at his leg as if he can’t even see the bone anymore. “I don’t know. It hurts pretty bad.”

“Look at me. It doesn’t hurt that bad. Just a little twinge.”

“Yeah, I can keep going.”

And Will’s a little terrified, because he didn’t even believe that Minders really existed, that they were something Gabe had made up to scare him. He knows the best thing to do would be to stay quiet and then run home and try his best to become re-visible before Gabe gets there and laughs at him for getting stuck again, but. But. But he can’t bring himself to leave a kid with a broken leg in the thrall of a Minder that obviously is going to make him walk however far on said broken leg. 

And Gabe’s always said that being invisible isn’t Will’s real super power: being nosy is.

So of course when they start moving, he starts following. 

“Why’s there blood on your hands, Cole?” the boy asks as they walk at a snail’s pace.

“There’s not blood on my hands, Dana,” and up close, Cole looks very much like he’s about to completely lose his shit. He’s pale and sweating and keeps darting nervous glances towards Dana’s leg. He’s propping Dana up, taking as much of his weight as he can, but it’s not like Cole’s a big, strapping guy. He’s starting to buckle under the pressure of it all. 

But Dana looks like he doesn’t even notice, blithely following wherever Cole leads. 

“Oh, must have been a shadow or something.” 

“Yeah, a shadow.” They go a few more minutes before Cole starts actually collapsing and Will jumps in and grabs Dana’s other arm. 

“Are you Convincing me that I’m being held up by something invisible?” Dana asks calmly. 

Cole looks at Dana’s up-stretched arm casually, like maybe he thinks he’s suddenly able to control the very elements, and carefully sinks to the ground. “No, I don’t think I’m doing that,” he finally says. “But maybe I’m imagining it and accidentally Convincing you, too.” 

“Why would you be imagining it?”

“You know how stressed I get when I keep you thinking something too long.”

And Dana doesn’t even ask a single question about Cole keeping him under mind control, just reaches out towards Will’s face. “This is pretty convincing.”

And well, Will’s never been good at being quiet. “Thank you,” he says with Dana’s fingers over his mouth.

Will’s pretty sure that Cole would have jumped if he weren’t so white and drawn in on himself; maybe Convincing Dana he isn’t bleeding to death is taking a toll on him. Dana, though, screams and jerks away, ripping his leg open a little further. He doesn’t even flinch though.

“Who’s there?”

“Uh, hi? My name’s Will?”

Cole sighs, like Changers following him home happens all the time. “Can you turn back please? I hate talking to people when they’re invisible. Creeps me out.”

“I’m stuck like this.”

“A curse?” Dana asks.

“Nah, just haven’t got the hang of Changing back yet.”

“Great.” Cole looks a little nervous, and Will wonders if it’s because Cole can’t see his eyes to try and Convince him of something too. 

“Do have someone you can call?”

“No!” Dana and Cole both say. 

“No one can know,” Cole says, his eyes darting around. “We have to keep this a secret.”

Will keeps his gaze on Dana because well, just in case. “I think someone’s gonna notice when you roll up with him bleeding everywhere.”

“Who’s bleeding?” Dana asks, looking around. 

They both ignore him. Probably not for the best if they work Dana up.

“Or do you know someone who can just fix that?”

“No,” Cole says, finally drooping down. 

“Okay, so what’s your plan?”

“I don’t have one. I don’t even know how much longer we’ve even got before shock sets in.” 

Will sighs before coming up with his own plan. “Okay, give me your cellphone.” Since his is invisible and he’s probably never seeing it again unless his clothes become visible for once in his life. He’s lost seven phones just like this in the past year.

And it just goes to show how worn down Cole is that he fishes his phone out of his pocket and doesn’t even question handing it over to an invisible stalker.

*

“How do you go on a walk and just find more people with powers?” David asks when he’s been Moved in, Gabe glaring at what he probably imagines is Will’s location. “I’ve never found anyone else randomly, and your count’s up to four.”

“It’s a hobby of mine? Or maybe that’s what I’m actually good at, finding people!”

“So you’re a Hufflepuff,” Dana says, which draws Gabe’s attention towards him and his open leg wound. “They are particularly good finders.”

“Ugh, this would be the type of person you find,” he says, before reaching out for Dana and the pair of them disappear. 

“He can fly, huh?” David asks. 

“I don’t know,” Will considers. “I only saw him falling.”

“Are you guys sure he’s going to be safe?” Cole interrupts.

“Yeah? Gabe’s probably got him back home by now. Hopefully given him something for the pain.” Because Gabe’s good under pressure, probably popped up right in their makeshift infirmary and started grabbing supplies. 

“Good,” Cole says, right before his eyes roll back in his head and he falls face first into the dirt.

“Now I see why you called me in, too,” David says, looking at the crumpled boy on the ground.

“Just don’t accidentally break him.”

*

When Cole comes to, he realises he’s slung over someone’s shoulder and being jostled about as they’re making their way through the forest. He forces himself to stay calm until he remembers what happened: Dana’s first solo flight, the crash, weirdo invisible Changer saving the day by calling a Mover that can actually teleport, how cool. He guesses they’re taking him wherever they took Dana, and they can’t be that bad because he’s not tied up yet, so he lets himself groan.

“I think he’s waking up.”

“Oh, good.”

“Remember, don’t let him look at your eyes.”

Which kind of hurts, but he knows what people with powers think about people like him. Untrustworthy, sneaky, manipulative. It’s why he and Dana had ran away from the burrow they’d grown up in. “I promise I won’t put anything in your head,” he says. 

“Yeah?” the Changer says. “The first thing I saw you do was Convince Dana he wasn’t bleeding to death.”

“I wouldn’t be able to Convince either of you of anything right now. Too weak. Besides, I’ve never been able to Convince two people at once.” 

“Convincing him he wasn’t bleeding to death was probably a smart move,” David says. “Probably didn’t even realise what was going on until the pain hit him when you passed out.” He carefully lowers Cole to the ground. He’s still shaking, still weak. He kind of wants to turn away and vomit, but instead just slowly sits on the ground and breathes deep. 

“You guys running from something?” David asks. 

“I guess it’s not really running from something when they keep the doors open for you to leave.” 

“Burrow troubles?”

“Yeah.” 

“I’m really glad I found Gabe and not a burrow,” Will says. 

“We’re basically a burrow, Will.”

“No, we’re a family.” 

And Cole would roll his eyes but his stomach is too busy rolling around for him to notice. 

*

When Will woke up on his sixteenth birthday and hadn’t been able to see his hands, he hadn’t completely panicked. He’d pulled his laptop out and searched and searched and searched and came to the conclusion that his brother was somehow pulling the best prank ever. 

When he’d gone down to breakfast, he’d pulled out his regular chair and sat down, and then wondered why his mother didn’t plop a plate down in front of him like she normally did. He was about to ask when she said, “Alex, go wake your brother up. He knows better than sleeping this late.”

Wait. What? She couldn’t see him at all? Should he say something about that? Should he say anything at all? What should he do? In the end, he couldn’t decide which was going to make her freak out more, not being able to see him or him just suddenly disappearing, so he wrote a quick note saying he was out to see the world and that he’d call, and then he’d left without taking anything with him because things like wallets and duffel-bags full of clothes don’t just float down the street. 

And he had called, later that same night, and the next, and every single one since. His parents still ask him to come home, and he always says soon, because he isn’t any closer to controlling this than he was two years ago and it’s embarrassing how he suddenly just turns invisible. 

He figures he will go home one day, but he’ll have to take Gabe and David who are closer to him than his brother ever was. 

*

“How’d you guys meet?” Cole asks after he’s done vomiting. He’s still kneeling on the ground, his stomach still tender, and he needs to get his mind off it. That’s why he hates having to Convince people of something important, how much it takes out of him. 

“David broke my bike,” Will says a little too nonchalant. 

“What! That was an accident! How many times do I have to tell you I’m sorry?”

“You still broke it! It’s still in seventy-eight pieces!”

When Cole finally looks up, David looks sheepish. “I’d never seen one before.” He glances at Cole. “How inclusive was your burrow? At mine, no one ever got out unless they were staying out.”

“We weren’t that tight knit, but someone leaving was definitely a big deal. They probably wouldn’t take us back at this point and it’s only been a couple of weeks.” 

“Mine wouldn’t have taken me back as soon as I broke the fence to get out,” David says, then he turns back to Will. “You need to get over it. It wasn’t even your bike, Will.” 

“What’s Gabe’s is mine,” comes Will’s voice. 

David’s got a small smile on his face, like he wants to hide it from Will. 

“What about Gabe? How’d you meet him?”

“Will said I was going to have to answer to the great overlord for breaking his bike,” David says. “Kind of made me want to wet myself. I’d only been out of the burrow a few days at that point and wasn’t used to the outside world.” 

“You let my best friend go off with someone who calls himself the great overlord?” Which yeah, Moving is pretty cool, but what? No powers are that serious. 

Will cackles. “Gabe has never once called himself the great overlord.” 

“Yeah, Will only calls him that to irritate him.” 

“Works really well!”

“Gabe says that’s the first words out of your mouth when he found you in his garden.”

“It was! ‘Oh, great overlord, please overlook me, a humble peasant, digging in your dirt for scraps!’ and then he told me to put some clothes on.”

Cole sighs. He feels like he’s probably going to be doing a lot of that in the near future.

*

Gabe looks exhausted when they finally trudge in. 

“He’s okay,” he says as soon as he looks up and sees how concerned Cole is. That’s something that Will’s always admired about Gabe, how quick he is to care for people. “I had to call in some favours to get his leg set, but it looks like it’s going to be fine.”

“Oh, thank god,” Cole says. “Thank you.”

“No, it’s cool.”

“Where’s he at?”

“He’s asleep. Up the stairs, to the left.” They all watch Cole scamper up the stairs. “Will, if I could see you, I would hit you. Stop bringing home strays!”

“Hey!”

“No, you’re fine, David, we’re keeping you, but Quiffy and Broken need to go.” 

“But Gabe!”

“The last thing we need is someone who just got his powers. We already have David breaking every fucking thing and you turning your phone invisible six hundred times a week. And don’t get me started on the Minder. That is not something we’re equipped to deal with. Get rid of them.” 

And yeah, Cole makes Will a bit uncomfortable, but their burrow didn’t want them and people being unwanted makes Will sad. Fortunately, he knows all the best ways to get under Gabe’s skin (he’s been perfecting his craft for the past two years, after all) and he knows he’s going to get what he wants. So he just crosses his fingers where Gabe can’t see and agrees.

*

Will doesn’t mean to be eavesdropping (yes, yes he does, what else is the point of being able to be invisible?) but he can’t help but hear Dana bring up his name as he’s passing the makeshift infirmary on his way up to his room. 

“I’m pretty sure he’s a crazy person,” Cole says in response to whatever Dana had said. “Or on drugs. Maybe both.” 

“I don’t know, man, he took care of us. He didn’t have to do that. He could have ran off and we would have never known he was even there.”

“He didn’t take care of us. He called other people to take care of us.” 

“What can an invisible man really do when someone’s got a bone sticking out of his leg? Push it back in without either of us noticing? Maybe he’s tiny and weak, so he called in someone who can Move and someone with super strength. Quick thinking.”

“Ugh stop fangirling the Changer.”

“If I’m fangirling any of them, it’ll be the Mover. Did you catch his name?”

“Gabe. He’s the burrow leader.”

Which, no, they are not a burrow, Gabe is adamant about that. It’s something that Gabe never talks about, but he’s the last of his entire burrow. Will’s never gotten all the details, but he imagines that some of them probably died and some of them probably left and that Gabe doesn’t have explanations for some, just that one day, he was the only one left with their bones piled around and their ghosts haunting the place. 

Will’s never been part of a burrow, was born into a perfectly ordinary family, but Gabe’s told him stories about his, when it was still around, and David has horror stories that makes the skin want to melt off Will’s bones. People with powers are terrifying, the ways they band together and ruin one another before perfectly ordinary people can. 

Will’s never understood that, why they call their home a burrow, a safe place to bolt when the world goes mad, and yet, they destroy each other from the inside out. He always thought it was better that it was just him and Gabe, tucked on Gabe’s burrow’s land, a tiny eye in the storm of the world. People from other burrows have always moved through, looking for a slice of security, and Gabe has always ushered them through as quickly as possible until Will found David in the nearby town, looking terrified of being caught. 

Gabe could probably be a leader of a burrow, he could probably collect up lost souls, people searching for something better than their last burrow, but Gabe doesn’t have time for that, too busy saving Will’s life, slapping band-aids on his wounds and laughing at his hair. 

It’s probably easier for these two boys fresh from their burrow to believe that Gabe is the leader, someone to look up to and fear, even though Will’s never been afraid of Gabe. They probably think there’s other people milling about that they haven’t seen, won’t see if they’ve got Changer genes in their burrow. 

Will knows now that sometimes new powers randomly pop up, but usually birds of a feather flock together. Gabe’s burrow had been known for displacing things, Moving things. David’s had been known for how they could manipulate their own bodies, Change themselves, strength and stretch and shrink. 

He wonders what kind of burrow Dana and Cole had come from, which one of them was the odd one out, why they felt they had to flee. People leaving their burrows is a big decision, how it changes the fabric of the burrow, how it can change the individual’s life if they get caught out in the world, stripped down into nothingness. He wonders how they thought they would make it. (He has that thought about himself a lot, late at night when he’s actually visible and still having trouble coping with the world, how he thought he was going to be able to just run away and live like everything was fine when he hadn’t even graduated high school, and never even heard of people like himself before and had no idea what anything was really like. How could he have had that much faith in himself when he trips over his own shoelaces all the time?) 

“Young, inn’t he?”

“Obviously he’s pretty capable. The others seem to respect him.”

Which, what? What in all the stories Will told about Gabe on the walk home gave Cole the impression that any one respects Gabe? (Will would follow Gabe to the ends of the Earth, of course, but he’d complain about Gabe’s leadership skill set the whole way there.) 

“Yeah, but leader?”

“We’ve apparently been on their land a few days, and Will’s the first one we came across. They’re a small burrow, maybe just starting out. They’re taking in recruits. Will and David both are new here.” 

Wow, Cole’s good at getting things all mixed up, but maybe that can work to his advantage. If Cole thinks they’re looking for recruits and they decide they want to stay, they’ll be on their best behaviour, trying to convince Gabe they’ll be worth something. Maybe they’ll convince Gabe on their own, because really, Will has no idea why Gabe let Will stay when he has to mop Will up all the time, help find all his invisible shoes that he leaves strewn about the place, why Gabe let David stay when he sent dozens of others on, people who had better control of themselves and who hadn’t broken the front door thirty times in the four months he’d been there. 

“Isn’t that suspicious? A bunch of teenaged boys just starting out with an entire burrow’s worth of land?”

“Not everyone’s from our burrow, Dana. Things are different out here.” There’s the sound of rustling blankets, like maybe Cole’s tucking Dana in better. “How are you really feeling?”

“They have a Knitter in the burrow.”

Um, no, Gabe knows a Knitter, and she’s going to be unbearable now that they’ve had to call in a favour. Will hopes that Dana’s worth it, because her time isn’t cheap. 

“Wow, those are rare.”

“I’ve been thinking, though, what if they’re not, man? You just said the world’s different out here. We don’t know anything but what our burrow’s told us. What if the world isn’t so scary? What if Knitters and Minders and Movers are more common than we think? What if powers themselves aren’t as rare as we’ve been told? The world is right there, bro, and we know nothing about it.”

“That’s why you came with me, isn’t it?”

“No, bro. I came with you because I’d never leave you by yourself.” 

“Even though I tell you what to think?”

“Saved me this time, didn’t it?”

“What about next time? What about when you just don’t agree with me and it annoys me and I make you change who you are?”

“You’d never do that.” 

Whatever Cole says next is too quiet for Will to hear, but he does hear someone else on the stairs, so he goes ahead and finishes scurrying to his room. 

*

It’s Will’s turn to make dinner (which usually means they get mac and cheese,) but tonight he’s talked David into cooking for him (which is what happens on Will nights that they don’t eat mac and cheese.) David’s been a nice addition to their little family, Gabe thinks, even though he’d never admit it where anyone else could hear it. David keeps Will entertained and out of trouble. He breaks a lot of stuff, which sucks, but he’s always so sorry about it that Gabe can’t help but forgive him. Even when he breaks stuff that’s been in the burrow for hundreds of years. 

“You’re going to get hurt if you don’t sit down somewhere,” David’s saying. 

“How?”

“I’m going to run into you with this hot frying pan. Or maybe stab you with a knife, something.” 

They go through this every time they’re both in the kitchen and Will’s invisible. Will has made the concession to wear a shirt over his invisible body, so at least they know where he’s at, but things like his fingers are easy to slam in the fridge door or set pans down on. Will likes to get in the way, be in the center of everything, and that’s always much easier on David when he can see Will. 

Gabe never has that much trouble; he tells Will to sit or he’ll break his hands and Will sits. He knows they both look up to him, and it made him uncomfortable when Will first showed up and started following him around, but now he’s a little thankful for it; he’d have kicked them both out long ago if they didn’t listen to him. 

“William,” he says, and Will sighs before flinging himself on the stool next to Gabe. It’s always a bit strange when Will lays his head on Gabe, especially when he’s Changed. Will invisible is a menace. 

“What are you working on?”

“Paperwork for the farm.” On paper, the burrow is actually a family farm. Years ago when the burrow was teeming with people, they actually did farm the land so they had less dependence on humanity, but once it became just Gabe, he let all that slide. The government still thinks it’s a farm though.

“You know, if you ever let people stay, we could actually plant more than just some potatoes.” 

“Yeah, but then I’d have to put up with more stupid people.” 

“Hey,” David says across the kitchen. 

“No, you’re fine, David. You’re the only one I want to keep. I keep hoping that Will loses interest and leaves.”

“You’re never getting rid of me, oh great overlord.”

Gabe makes a noise of frustration and pushes Will’s head off his shoulder. 

There’s noise in the hallway, and normally that would be a cause for concern because everyone for miles is in the kitchen, but it’s just Cole helping Dana hobble in. 

“There’s a shirt floating in your kitchen,” he says. 

“Hi!” Will chirps. “You both are looking a lot better! Less pale, less bloody, I approve.” 

“Thank you,” Dana says, dryly. “Actually, no. Thank you for real. I have no idea where we’d be if it weren’t for you.” 

“No problem! Are you guys hungry? I know passing out from overexerting yourself and pain from from broken bones takes a lot out of you. It’s my night to make dinner so we’re in for a treat.” 

Dana’s gaze swings between the floating shirt and David stirring a giant pot of sauce on the other side of the room. 

“Don’t ask,” Gabe advises him in a low voice. 

“If you don’t mind having us,” Cole says. “We can leave whenever you want us to. You’ve already done so much for us.”

“No, you have to stay at least until Dana can walk by himself. Wouldn’t want him to restrain that leg.”

Gabe keeps his face carefully blank, but he does dig his knuckles in Will’s side, his hands hidden by the folds of the shirt. Will, to his credit, doesn’t even make a sound; he probably jerks and makes a face, but luckily none of them see Gabe reprimanding Will. 

Then again, he doesn’t want to waste a gift from the Knitter. Better make sure that Dana’s fully healed before they trek off and his leg shatters again while they’re still on burrow land. “Yeah, you should probably stay a few days. Where were you guys headed?” Even though plenty of people have trekked through the burrow looking for something better and none of them have ever had a destination in mind; when people run, they rarely think it through, just know they’ve got to go.

“New York,” Cole says. “My mom’s burrow is from there. She says the city is full of people like us and no one needs a burrow to feel safe.”

Gabe grunts and is about to say that burrows aren’t for making people feel safe, when David does it for him. “Being in a burrow shouldn’t make you feel safe. The people around you should make you feel safe. New York is a long way away. Do you plan on walking the whole way there?””

Cole looks stumped, but Dana jumps in. “We had planned on flying once we got far enough away from our burrow. But that looks like it’s going to be a bad idea.” 

“Maybe make a better plan while Dana heals?” Gabe suggests, because hey, he isn’t even going to have to kick them off his property, they’re going to go on their own. He can wait a few days for that. 

*

“That’s so weird,” Dana says. He hasn’t actually eaten any of his food yet, too fascinated with invisible Will and his digestion habits. 

“You get used to it quick,” David answers. He’s not even watching the floating fork and the disappearing food, just shoveling his food in his mouth as quickly as he can, like it might disappear if he doesn’t. And who knows? Will seems like the type to eat everyone’s food when they’re not looking.

Will probably sticks his tongue out, because suddenly there’s a blob of chewed up food sticking out approximately where Will’s face is. 

“William,” Gabe says, and the food promptly disappears. “We have guests. Stop being a caveman.” 

“No promises,” Will says, but he seems to be on good behaviour for the rest of the meal. Dana can see why Gabe’s the leader of this burrow, how even mouthy Will jumps to listen to him. He wonders why this burrow isn’t more like his and Cole’s had been, a sense of community, group meals. 

“Where is everyone else?” he finally asks.

“This is it,” Gabe says. 

“So you’re just starting to establish your burrow?”

“We’re not a burrow,” Will says. 

Gabe nods, but David doesn’t look convinced. 

“Burrows are trouble,” Gabe says. “You guys ran from yours. David ran from his. People are always trying to escape. We don’t want that.” 

“We don’t either,” says Cole, but Dana always thought that Cole was more anxious about leaving the burrow than he was, and Cole had less to lose. “We just want to be free.”

“The American dream,” Will sings.

*

When Cole starts gathering up the dishes from the table, Gabe clears his throat. “David, help Dana up the stairs please. William, you’re on dishes.”

“That’s not fair. I made dinner. It’s your dish night.”

Gabe doesn’t even bother trying to glare at Will. “It’s interesting how you try and get out of dishes every single night you’re invisible.”

“Fine, fine, but when I cut myself on a knife again…”

“I’ll patch you up again, I promise.” Plates start floating out of the room and Gabe catches Cole’s eye. “Can I have a word?”

Cole nods and follows him down a short hallway; Gabe’s pretty sure he hears Will’s shirt hit the ground and the door swing open one more time. Ugh, Will and his super power of being nosy. 

“How old’s Dana?” Gabe asks when they’re standing in the middle of the front room, which is not what Cole was expecting, judging by the look on his face. 

“His sixteenth birthday was five weeks ago.” 

“You didn’t even wait for the confirmation ceremony before yanking him out of there?”

“You don’t understand. We’ve talked about leaving ever since my sixteenth birthday. Once he got control of not floating off, he woke me up in the middle of the night, ready to go.” 

“You don’t think they’re looking for you, do you?” Because some burrows can’t let go, will search the world over to regain control of something they’ve lost.

Cole shakes his head. “They didn’t care if I left. Minders aren’t worth the trouble. And Dana…”

“He’s a Flier. Too flashy to be worth much,” Gabe considers. Maybe he won’t have an irate burrow showing up on his lawn. 

“You’d think that. When he woke up floating, the whole burrow was excited. But he’s always been loyal to me, so.”

“What kind of burrow did you leave?”

“They’re mostly Flamers.” 

“Defensive people. Dana was going to be their scout, their sacrifice if they needed one, probably.” 

“Probably,” Cole agrees. “If he’d been just a Flamer, I was going to leave him. It’d been easier for him to be with his own.” 

Cole probably didn’t mean to tell Gabe, a virtual stranger, that it’d have been easy to leave Dana behind, but Gabe’s always been good at coaxing information out of people. It probably would have been easier for Cole, too, Convincing people to help a pretty boy out on his own. He probably wouldn’t even have had to use his powers often. 

“He never would have forgave you.”

“Eventually he would have forgotten me.” 

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Gabe’s really glad they had this talk, because he suddenly sees how the future’s laid out.

*

Sometime over night, Will becomes visible, so when Cole literally runs into him in the hall just before dawn he looks a bit wary. “You’re a lot bigger than I was expecting,” he says when he must realise who it is. 

Will laughs. “I probably could have dragged you home after you passed out yesterday. Just easier with David.”

“You told him not to break me. Twice.” 

“I thought you were passed out for that.” 

“I’m a Minder. I’m constantly aware of the minds around me.”

“That’s scary. Can you read my mind?”

“More like impressions. Your dirty secrets are safe from me.” 

“Good to see you this morning, Will,” David says brightly when they finally push their way into the kitchen. 

“Good to be seen.” It’s something Will says every time he’s been stuck invisible for any extended period of time, and he shoots up a peace sign when Gabe rolls his eyes. 

“Is Dana still asleep?”

“Yeah, should I go wake him?”

“No, let him sleep. He’ll need all he can get as he recovers. Having bones Knitted back together is draining,” which Will’s never considered before. He always thought that the one with the power was the one drained, but maybe Knitters run differently. There’s still a lot about magic and powers that Will doesn’t understand. 

“Okay. Do you mind keeping an eye on him today? I think I’m going to head back to town and get some supplies for when we go.”

“No problem. David can drive you into town.”

“It’s alright, you’ve already done so much. Besides, the walk will be nice to clear my head. Still a lot of static from yesterday.” 

Gabe nods like he understands, and maybe he does. Maybe there was a Minder in his burrow before they all withered away. Or maybe he’s empathic and has such a prickly barrier to keep all that at bay. Whatever it is, Gabe just points out the trail to get to the nearby town, offers use of one of the bikes and then heads out to the barn for whatever it is he does there every single morning from sunup until breakfast. 

Will sits around the kitchen with David until David’s ready to head out to take care of the goats. It’s Will’s favourite time of the day, not that he’d ever admit to it, just watching the farm come to life, the few animals they’ve got left waking up and stretching. 

Though, it’s always easier when he’s invisible and the murderous chickens can’t see and chase him.

*

Gabe knew it was going to happen before it actually happened. 

He’s not a prophet, but his burrow had been full of Viewers and he has a touch of foresight, but this? This is obvious; even if the Minder hadn’t pretty much told him the night before, he could read it in every line of Cole’s face this morning. And he’s pretty sure there’s nothing he could do to stop it, because if not here, then it’ll just happen somewhere else where Dana’s less capable of handling it. 

A letter’s sitting on the kitchen table, Dana’s name on it in flowery handwriting that doesn’t match Gabe’s perception of Cole. He knows what’s in the letter even though he doesn’t open it. He could probably recite it word for word, because he’d found dozens of letters just like it years ago, piled in this same spot. 

When Dana stumbles into the kitchen in mid-afternoon, sleep still in his eyes, Gabe’s still sitting there, staring at it, like maybe he can change what it says with enough force of will. 

“Gabe?” Dana says. “What’s wrong?” He’s only been there two days, but he can already read Gabe like Will can, intimately, carefully, deeply. 

“Cole’s gone.” Because there’s no other way to say it.

Dana freezes for a moment and then eases himself into the chair next to Gabe carefully. His leg is fixed, the bones and skin and marrow Knitted carefully back together, but it’s still sore, will be for days to come. “What?”

“He got up this morning and tried to leave before anyone woke up, but we’re all early risers. He said he was going to town, but left that behind.” Gabe nods towards the envelope and Dana reaches for it, cracks the seal carefully. 

“He says it’s for my own good.” 

“I thought it might.” 

“Why would he do this?”

“He thinks it’s safer for you, probably.” 

“That’s exactly what it says. It’ll be safer here for me without a Minder dragging me down.” 

“Ugh,” Gabe says. He’s thought about Moving out, maybe just trekking out on foot, because really, Cole couldn’t have gotten far yet, even if he’d slapped the letter down as soon as Will and David headed out to the pens this morning. This isn’t going according to plan, and Gabe’s just a touch furious at how the cocky little jerk had dumped the kid and ran at the first chance. 

“I can’t believe he’d do this. We had plans for the rest of our lives. And now. He’s just gone.” Dana looks more upset than Gabe’s seen him yet, and Gabe’s seen him with bone sticking out of his leg. “What am I going to do?”

Gabe wants to reach out and tell him it’ll be alright, that Cole will change his mind and come back. But Gabe’s not in the habit of sugarcoating things. “You can stay here until we figure this out,” he says, even though he doesn’t want to.

*

“I told you he was shady.” 

“Will, that’s not nice.” 

“No, Will’s right for once.”

It makes Will jerk around when Gabe agrees with him. “Yeah, I’m right for once.” It makes them all a little uncomfortable though when people are agreeing with him. “How’d Dana take it?”

“Not well. How would you feel if I just disappeared in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting in a bunch of strangers’ living room. I’d be out looking for you, even though you could have Moved across the world. I’d kick your ass.”

“Will, you can’t kick the side of the barn.”

“Fine. I’d get David to kick your ass.” 

And David probably would. He looks a little upset just thinking about Gabe leaving. “What are we going to do? Are we keeping him?”

“Looks like we’re going to have to. Can’t send someone freshly sixteen with uncontrollable powers out into the world on his own with a broken leg that was Knitted back together yesterday. He’d probably end up floating off and dropping a thousand miles.” 

“On his own. You had no problems wanting to kick him out when Cole was here.” 

“Shut up, Will.” 

Will grins and obediently shuts up. 

*

Dana, for being freshly sixteen and being left with a ton of strangers with a serious physical injury, is an eager helper. 

“You know, you really don’t have to do this,” Will says a few mornings later. David’s left him to feed the chickens because he thinks it’s hilarious, but Dana’s crawled right into the coop so he doesn’t have to.

“Nah, earning my keep, man.” 

“Gabe didn’t make me do anything for weeks after I first got here, and my leg wasn’t randomly pounding from being haphazardly Knit back together.”

“Haphazardly? Is Alex a poor Knitter?” 

“Not usually,” Will concedes. “She just talks so much, I’d rather stay hurt than have her come in and fix whatever it is.” 

Dana laughs. “You ramble more than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

“Funny, everyone always says that.” He’s not really doing much, just watching Dana scatter feed. David’s probably going to have things to say when he finds out he’s letting Dana do all the hard work, and he doesn’t even want to think about Gabe. The pair of them have taken Dana under their respective wings, coddle him in ways that neither of them have ever coddled Will. 

It would make Will kind of jealous, but he finds himself getting caught up in Dana’s orbit, too. He can’t really see how Cole left Dana behind so easily when he’s ready to follow Dana to the ends of the earth after only a week in his presence. More proof that Minders aren’t to be trusted, he guesses. 

*

Gabe gets the call just before dusk. 

His burrow had disintegrated, melted into wisps and fragments, but some of the people of his burrow are still out there. He wouldn’t let them come back, not after all the years they’ve been gone, but he has a network with some of them, can talk to them now without wanting to kill them. Sometimes.

“Flames,” Cassidy says when he answers the phone. 

“What?” 

“The whole place up in flames.” 

“Oh. When?” Because Cassidy has never been wrong and he needs to get things together if he’s going to be fighting a fire.

“Soon.” She clears her throat. “Are you building a new burrow?”

“No.”

“I believed you when it was just the weirdo Changer, companionship. But five? That’s a very small burrow.”

“Five?” 

“Yeah. In my View, there’s five of you fighting the flames. The new guys are cute.”

Ugh, more unexpected company. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Do you want any help?” she asks, but she doesn’t sound like she’s particularly ready to be Moved in and help with the heavy lifting. 

“Nah, wouldn’t want to mess with your View.” Besides, Viewers are just as much trouble as Minders, ugh.

*

Gabe sits everyone down that night and the first thing that occurs to Dana is: “My old burrow.”

Gabe blinks. “I hadn’t even thought of that,” and Dana feels a petty rush of pride at already being helpful to his new burrow leader. 

“It’d be just like them to burn the place.”

“Okay, well, we’re going to need a plan to minimize the damage,” Gabe says.

“Can’t we just stop it? I can leave if it’ll save the farm.”

“Cass’s View is going to come true whether you’re here or not. Might as well be here to tell them you’re not going back and that Cole didn’t kidnap you.”

“They’re not going to care that Cole didn’t kidnap me. They had plans for me. They had plans for Cole. We knew they were eventually going to catch up to us.” Dana’s not panicking, not yet, because these guys he’s found himself with are problem solvers. He’s only been around a few weeks, but he just knows, Gabe always has a plan. He keeps the others calm, directs them well, is everything a burrow leader should be. “We were just hoping we’d be further away before they noticed we were gone.” 

“Maybe we should hide you.” 

“Where, Will? The root cellar?”

“Do you think they’d check there?

“They’ll check everywhere. Burrows who go after people who leave are blood thirsty.”

“Is that why you’ve never let anyone stay before?”

Gabe’s quiet a moment. “In part.” Because he likes to keep his reasons to himself. “Look, Cass just said it was going to happen soon. She didn’t say tonight. We have a few days before it’ll happen. Time to plan.” 

*

“Do you think that’s the real reason Cole left him behind? Give Dana up to the burrow and give himself more time to get away?” Dana asks after Dana’s gone to bed. The three of them are still in the kitchen, huddled around cups of hot chocolate, trying to make a plan so the life they’ve built up isn’t ruined. 

“Where do you come up with this stuff, David? They were best friends. Maybe he really thought they’d never find Dana here.” 

One of the things Gabe sometimes can’t stand about Will is how optimistic he is, trying to see the good in everyone. There’s a time and a place for it, but when their home’s about to go up in smoke isn’t it. “I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe that was his plan all along, find someone to drop Dana off with and continue on his way.”

“Do you really think so?”

Will wasn’t raised in a burrow, so he doesn’t know how people in burrows try to drown each other, destroy each other, like there’s only enough room in the world for one extraordinary person. Of course, he’s tried to tell Will, tried to warn him, scare him a little bit where he won’t try to set off on his own again, get caught out by the wrong person. “I keep telling you, William. The world is awful.”

“Not everyone is awful.” 

Gabe sighs. 

*

They stay at high alert over the next few days, jumping at the sounds each other makes. Will wonders if this is what it used to be like for people with powers, back before burrows even, when people used to go on witch hunts. 

It leaves a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he finds himself wishing that they would just hurry up and make their move.

When the burrow finally does shows up, it isn’t like any of them expected, because it’s Cole knocking politely on the front door. He looks scared, that’s Will’s only thought before their eyes accidentally meet. And it’s interesting, because Will can tell he’s being Convinced, that Cole’s about to put thoughts in his head, but it doesn’t feel too much different than normal; he can see how people miss this entirely. 

_You don’t trust me, but you’ll play along_ , is all Cole Convinces him of before he breaks the connection and Will slowly trickles back into his own mind. It’d be easy to miss that, too, if he hadn’t been expecting it. 

“Sorry I was gone so long!” Cole chirps, his eyes still terrified. “Forgot my key again!”

And Will smiles big, even though he doesn’t want to. “Maybe we should just weld the key to your hand.”

Cole forces a laugh and then pushes past Will into the house. As soon as the door shuts, he drops the smile. “We have less than ten minutes to get Dana out before our old burrow sets the whole place on fire.” 

And oh, the burrow finding the farm makes so much more sense now. “GABE!”

*

“They caught me fifty miles from here. I’ve been playing dumb, but one of their Minders finally got it out of me,” Cole says. Gabe’s forced him to talk in quick whispers so if the burrow’s somehow eavesdropping, they won’t hear much. “I didn’t even know they had other Minders.”

Dana’s being more quiet than Gabe’s ever seen him, his eyes big and focused solely on Cole, drinking him in, like he’d expected to never see him again. 

“I don’t want them to have Dana,” Cole says. He’s keeping his eyes carefully on the ground like Gabe’s instructed. “I’ll go back if that’s what they want, but please help me hide him.” 

“The root cellar?” David says, and Gabe forces a small smile, because this wasn’t in any of their plans, Cole being there, but well, Cassidy had said there were five of them. 

“Guys, I have an idea,” Will suddenly says. “It might not work, I’ve never tried it before, but maybe.”

“What, Will?” Gabe asks, because Will’s ideas rarely work as Will thinks they’re going to and they’re pressed for time and might as well get Will’s bad idea out of the way first.

In response to that, Will reaches out and grabs Dana and puts his concentrating face on. And then, slowly, they both blink out of sight. 

Gabe lets out a long breath. “Okay. But can you turn him back? You’ve lost fifty pairs of shoes just like this.”

“We’ll worry about that later. For now, no one can find Dana if he’s quiet.” 

Cole lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“But now you have to help us save the farm.” 

“Anything,” Cole promises. 

When the burrow comes crashing in eleven minutes later, they’ve already made a plan.

*

“You know,” Will says conversationally, some time later. “When you said ten minutes until they set the place on fire, for some reason, I thought they’d try to come negotiate first.” He has the kitchen faucet sprayer pointed towards the back door where a man completely done up in flames is trying to get in.

“I convinced them that you guys were a big burrow,” Cole says. “Hoped it would stop them from even trying.”

“Convinced them, or convinced them?”

“A bit of both?”

“You’re not sure?”

“Eh,” Cole shrugs, before hitting the man in the face with a frying pan and knocking him out cold. “Hard to tell. Sorry, Tyler.” 

It’s strange to think of Cole knowing these people that are ripping apart the farmhouse. It’s strange to think that they lived together, worked together, and now they’re doing everything they can to destroy Cole, maybe Dana if they can ever find him. 

Will lost track of him a while ago, but that doesn’t mean much. He could be hovering somewhere in the kitchen for all Will knows. That’s the only perk of being invisible. No matter what happens, Will hopes Dana keeps his mouth shut and stays quiet wherever he’s hidden himself. 

Gabe Moves into the kitchen and then pops out as soon as he sees that Cole and Will have it under control. He’s been hopping around the house, covering all the different openings, which probably is feeding into the idea that the farm is teeming with burrow members. 

He hears David whoop loudly from the front room and then a great crash, followed by David cackling, so he assumes things are going fine for him. But, really, Will has no idea how they’re going to pull this off, because, um, five teenaged boys against a burrow full of adults that are comfortable in their powers? Yeah, Will doesn’t think it’s going to end well.

But well, there’s no one else he’d rather lose with.

*

“They’re in the house,” Gabe whispers. “They finally got through the back door. I think Cole’s with them now.”

David punches a fist into his other hand. “It’s going down.”

“I’m yelling timber,” Will whispers back, and Gabe smacks him in the back of the head before Moving out of the room. 

David’s snickering, though. “Will, just keep quiet and let me handle it when they get here.” Which is probably for the best, if Will can keep his mouth shut. 

“Aye, aye, captain of the good ship Lollipop.” 

“We’re doomed. You can’t even stay quiet when it’s just us.”

“Where’s the incentive in that? You can’t hold a conversation with yourself.”

David groans. 

*

“Where’s the boy?” the burrow leader says when she comes in the room.

Will glances around wildly because this is a bit more than he was prepared for, but the burrow leader can’t even see him, is shooting the question at David. 

“Um,” David says, and he doesn’t even looked nervous about being surrounded by the enemy. He shrugs, casually. “No idea. Our Changer Changed him.”

“Where’s the Changer at?” the burrow leader roars, and some of the other burrow members that have trailed in start scrambling around, like they’ll be able to actually undo something a Changer’s Changed. 

David just shrugs again. “Somewhere, I imagine.” He looks really bored, like he has no idea why they’re even bothering. 

Will’s starting to sweat a bit, because god, a lot of people have poured into the room, and someone’s bound to bump into him. Or he’s going to sneeze, or something, and god, their burrow must be huge if they sent out this many people to find two little boys.

Finally, one of the scramblers come back. “We can only find one other person here, but he’s a Mover and we can’t catch him.” 

The burrow leader swings back around to David. “So where’s the Changer?”

“He Changed, too.” It’s then that Will remembers that David has experience with burrows, left one after manipulating it as long as possible. David doesn’t seem like the type to manipulate anyone, ever, and it’s interesting to watch how he’s getting underneath the burrow leader’s skin. 

The burrow leader takes a visual deep breath. “What kind of Changer do you have?”

David yawns a bit. “We tend to keep to ourselves. I know we have a Mover, but really, what can he Move? What can our Changer Change? What have I been lying about doing?”

The burrow leader’s eyes narrow. “What do you really do?” she asks, her tone deceptively mild. 

David just looks at her sadly. “I destroy everything I touch.” 

Her eyes narrow even further until they’re just slits in her face. “Impressive,” she says. “You know, if you help me, there’s room in my burrow for someone promising. Just think, a real burrow. Real people around to help you grow. People who will understand you. Not a Mover and a Changer you know nothing about, harboring one of our stolen children. They’re going to die here today for taking him, but you don’t have to.”

“Interesting,” David says. “That’s exactly what my burrow said when they came for me.” He loses the sad look for a moment, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “But I meant it when I said it. I destroy everything I touch.” Before she can react, he reaches out for her.

And then the burrow leader blinks out of sight. 

*

Cole makes eye contact with the only person that had been in a position to see Gabe the only moment he’d been in the room, and thinks hard, because this is probably more important than anything else he’s ever Convinced someone of. Even though he hadn’t seen even a flash of Gabe and he’d been looking straight at the burrow leader. 

The room hadn’t been loud before, just the sound of the burrow leader’s voice, but it’s silent now. The burrow members blink at one another, because that probably wasn’t in their plans, even their plans for battling a large, established burrow. They all look a little lost. 

“What did you do to her?” someone finally shrieks, and that’s when the noise crashes in, gasps and whispers of conversation, hums of powers dancing in people’s veins. 

“Silence!” David screams, and stands up. He looks just a touch uncomfortable with everyone’s eyes on him, but really, Cole’s impressed with how David’s commanding the room. “If I were you, I would go ahead and leave while I could.” 

“Or what?” someone asks. 

David smiles, it’s full of sharp teeth, and this time he doesn’t even have to reach out, the man just disappears. Cole kind of wonders where Gabe’s dropping them off at as he preemptively Convinces another person. “Your numbers have been dropping since you got here. Or haven’t you noticed?”

The burrow members heads dart around, like they’re giving a head count, and someone else disappears; Cole doesn’t even read a flicker of realization on anyone’s face, and really, did Will turn Gabe invisible when Cole was distracted trying to infiltrate his old burrow?

“Did you really think just a Mover and a Changer were holding you back for so long?

The group of men around Cole start exchanging wary glances, like, maybe bursting in to find a handful of teenaged boys was just a decoy to a serious burrow, or maybe like they think that David really does have some kind of intense destroying powers. They edge towards the door; Cole lets them slide out one by one. 

“You won’t get away with this. We’ll come back,” a woman says.

“You can’t come back if you’re dead,” David promises, and the room bursts into flames none of the Flamers can control. 

David doesn’t look nervous, even though that isn’t part of any plan that’s been laid out, but he cackles wildly, smoke swirling around him theatrically, Dana and Will’s outlines menacingly hovering behind him.

Then, one by one, the bodies of the missing burrow members start popping in at David’s feet.

All in all, that clears the burrow out pretty fast.

*

They sit on what’s left of the burnt porch later that evening, mostly propped up against each other with Cole on the step above, more weary than any of them have ever been before; none of them have ever exhausted their powers like this.

“This sucks,” Cole says. 

“Sorry,” Dana says, and he sounds sheepish. “I thought it would be good for effect. I didn’t mean to burn whatever was left of the farmhouse.” 

“You’ve never even mentioned you thought you might be a Flamer,” Gabe says quietly. 

“I knew Cole wouldn’t take me with him when he let if he knew.” 

Which makes a lot more sense to Gabe now, the lengths their burrow were going to in order to get Dana back. Fully developed double powers? Rarely heard of. “Why didn’t you say anything to us after he’d left?”

Gabe can feel were Dana shrugs. “Keeping something for myself, I guess.”

“Speaking of keeping things to ourselves,” David speaks up. “Might have been a good idea to share the fact that you were going to pile unconscious people up around me. Did you hit them in the head with a hammer? I thought the plan was you were going to just leave them back at their burrow.” 

“Yeah, but then I got a call from Alex right before hand and she offered to knock anyone out for me if I brought them to her. Figured it’d help establish you’re a crazy fucker with tons of power.”

“Hopefully that means they won’t come back. They didn’t even try to take any bodies.”

“What are we going to do when they wake up?”

“I can drop them off anywhere. She said it’d take a day or two for them to wake up.”

“What are we going to do when they come back?”

Gabe’s quiet at that. He doesn’t really know what they can do when the burrow comes back. They’ll be prepared the next time, will know some of Gabe’s secrets, know that David can’t be some magical fount of destruction. They’ll know it’s just a handful of teenaged boys playing at games that no one taught them the rules of.

And the farmhouse is ruined, parts of the house still smoldering in the dark. Generations of his old burrow had made their lives here and it’s all gone, burned away. When the burrow comes back, they won’t even have something to protect, just a pile of ashes and some hopes.

Will’s the one that speaks. He hasn’t said anything at all since they’d finished chasing the burrow away, had collapsed down next to David on the porch, visible again and wearing Cole’s jacket and some trousers left in one of the barns. “We won’t be here when they come back.”

“Are we going to hide in the root cellar?” David asks, and Gabe gives a small chuckle that boarders on hysteria. 

“No,” he says, finally reaching out and dropping an arm around Cole and dragging him down into the cuddling pile. “I just think it’s time my parents meet my new family. We can figure out the rest of our lives after that.”

*

(Dana spends the next three weeks invisible before it slowly fades away. First his left foot becomes visible, then two of the fingers on his left hand.

“I thought you’d been kidding about an invisible boy with you. Some kind of prank you kids were pulling,” his mom tells him after that first breakfast with Dana’s face visible. “What happened to him?”

Will thinks about to when he met Dana, all those weeks ago and shrugs. “Some kind of curse, I guess.”)


End file.
